Mineralisation of Bone depends on the enviroment that it is deposited in
and the relative thickness of the bone. This process can take up to a
couple of years to thousands of years. In certain conditions, such as where the
minerals in the surrounding enviroment are extremmly soluble, the process
will be sped up - for instance, in some places in Australia fossils can be
created in a short period of time. Scientists in have now made Petrified wood
in the lab
in a matter of hours.
Minerals in extremely soluble conditions will penetrate bone and other organic
matter extremely quickly in the right
conditions.